| Topic: |
Sociology > Education |
| User: |
"Dana whatsittoya" |
| Date: |
02 May 2004 08:26:19 PM |
| Object: |
The rising tide of mediocrity in our public schools |
http://home.adelphia.net/~frankmazur/public_education_08_03.htm
Public Education
by Rep. Frank Mazur, Chittenden 3-7
(8/7/03) Government's most significant duty is to provide education and we
each view our public school system as being the best. That's why it's
important to understand what experts are saying about our public schools
before we get too complaisant.
A recent news story indicated Vermont tops national average in reading and
writing scores. Sounds great! About 60% of our kids aren't proficient at
their grade level. Not great!
I attended a meeting in Boston this past spring and heard Mark Roosevelt
speak about education and the need for reform. Roosevelt is a liberal
Democrat who re-wrote many controversial education policies in Massachusetts
while chair of the House Education Committee. He lost in his bid for
Governor in the mid-90's.
Roosevelt, who heads a foundation promoting education excellence, spoke on
what he termed the "great array of incapables in our public schools
systems." He indicated our schools aren't vigorous and just award diplomas
rather than educating kids.
The focus of Roosevelt's remarks was to advance vigorous standards for all
students with very specific measurable goals. The current practice of
customizing education to each student's achievement level is
counter-productive and widens the achievement gap that's so damaging to our
kids.
He also spoke about improving teacher quality with vigorous professional
development and evaluations, since a good teacher matters more than
anything. Students with two bad teachers in a row will never recover.
Last fall, I met Pete DuPont, former Governor of Delaware who has written
extensively on education. He too is concerned about the rising tide of
mediocrity in our public schools and how we have devoted money to education
but have seen no academic progress in the last 20 years.
Though classes are smaller and there is more emphasis on English and Math,
DuPont says there is little if any performance pay or teacher assessment to
improve quality. The school day and school year has remained the same.
Homework still averages one hour a day and there are fewer teachers with
master's degrees.
Student performance also shows little change. Test scores are virtually the
same, graduation rates are down, research papers in high school are an
endangered species and on an international education measurement, relative
to other nations, American children do worse the longer they stay in school.
It isn't a money problem. Federal spending has risen from $4 billion to $22
billion in 20 years and in the most recent fiscal year, our country spent
$480 billion on elementary and secondary education compared with $360
billion on defense.
Rooservelt approached the problem from an ideology perspective. Republicans
want to reduce the cost of education, Democrats want to spend more but don't
want to consider education reform and the unions just get in the way of
progress to reform and improve education.
DuPont calls it an "institution problem; a problem created and sustained by
layers of immovable bureaucracy in public-school administration, departments
of education, legislatures and teachers' unions."
"We're doing it for our kids" just doesn't cut it anymore in today's
environment because our kids are failing academically. Roosevelt wants tough
standards because that will raise the bar for everyone in the process. Focus
should be on challenging and educating children to achieve excellence and
not allow social promotion and grade inflation that's so evident in our
education system today.
Other writers (Checker Finn and Caroline Hoxby) indicate the reason our
public education system is failing our children is that public schools "have
not been obligated to produce results." They have a captive student body, a
guaranteed source of income forever and are insulated from competitive
pressures with school boards, state administrative and union bureaucracies
that govern the education system.
Though DuPont, Hoxby, and Finn subscribe to market forces like school choice
to propel our education system to replace public education bureaucracies,
Roosevelt indicates we should challenge our schools, regularly measure
students' and teachers' progress and provide extra help to students who fail
standards.
Right after Mr. Roosevelt spoke, three NEA teachers verbally attacking him
for degrading our public schools and for teacher bashing. He defended his
views and indicated several of his colleagues are also dismayed that he's so
critical of his former political base. However, most people in the audience
agreed with him.
Whatever action is taken to reform education, we must remember intellectual,
moral and spiritual strength of our people is threatened by our poor
education system. Good education is an American value and we should be
aiming for perfection even if we miss it rather than aim for mediocrity and
hit in on the nose
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: The rising interest of mediocrity in DANA'S Posts. |
03 May 2004 12:48:57 AM |
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On Mon, 03 May 2004 01:26:19 GMT, "Dana" <whatsittoya> wrote:
(8/7/03) Government's most significant duty is to provide education and we
each view our public school system as being the best.
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